FDA Clears Minimally Invasive Procedure for Chronic Back Pain

A recently FDA-cleared outpatient procedure called HydroDiscectomy is allowing patients to sit upright from the operating table and go home just hours after a herniated spinal disk procedure.
These procedures often require an invasive approach which may lead to lengthy recovery times. With HydroDiscectomy, clinicians can remove bulging spinal disc tissue through an opening in the lower back that is the size of a straw. The procedure consists of a hair-thin, 600-miles-per-hour stream of water instead of a two-inch incision from an open surgery with a razor-sharp scalpel. In short, HydroDiscectomy can offer an option to patients who have failed many conservative treatments but who don’t want to go under the knife and will likely lead to a significant reduction in their narcotic pain medication.
“With HydroDiscectomy, patients can walk out of our surgery center after several hours feeling significantly reduced, or no, pain at all,” said Bothell, WA-based physician Solomon Kamson, M.D. "Other procedures may require open surgery and thereby require hospital stays and rehabilitation," added Dr. Kamson, a Fellow of the American Academy of Minimally Invasive Spine Medicine & Surgery and a member of the editorial advisory board of Pain Physician: Official Journal of International Pain Management Physicians.